Sabah, Borneo

Some places are best described with pictures, rather than words, and even then it's not quite adequate in capturing the blissfulness of lying on a pristine white beach with turquoise tropical waters lapping at your feet. A welcome and much needed break from the dazzling madness of big cities:

This is my third time on Malaysia's relatively unspoiled coasts - the first being on the amazing Perhentian Islands, which I just can't rave about enough, and the second in Sarawak,during my first visit to Borneo. The fact that I came back should say enough really...

We stayed on the idyllic Gaya Island for a few days where I was lucky enough to spot about 5 black-tipped reef sharks whilst snorkelling, and also unbelieveably relieved to get back into some scuba gear and explore the depths. The diving wasn't as impressive as what I'd found in Perhentian and Indonesia but still well worthwhile. At one point, we found two horseshoe crabs stuck in a net on the seabed which our diving instructor freed - giving us the chance to take a close look at the alien-like species which is effectively a living fossil dating back over 450 million years.

The last couple of nights of our stay were spent at the Shangri-La Resort in Rasa Ria where they are wrapping (today is the last day) up their orangutan rehabilitation programme. We spent the morning watching two two-year old orangutans clambering over each other and their keepers - followed by a canopy walk where we introduced to the pit viper. Our guide gleefully told us that it was called the 100 step snake (because that's as far as you'll get once it's bitten you) whilst poking it with a stick:

Another of the highlights of the trip was a night tour of the mangrove forests that line the rivers around Rasa Ria. At night, the shadows along the river banks come to life with the twinkling glow of hundreds of miniscule fireflies. The scene looks like it's been lifted straight out of a Disney movie - our guide held a small blue-ish light on our boat which mimics the light given off by female fireflies, making the tiny twinkling bulbs lift out of the shadows and float towards the boat

Our last day in the sun was spent sipping coconuts whilst topping up our tans on the beach and hiring out a small catamaran, skippered by Stanley, an ex-mechanic.

Our return trip was broken up by a one day layover in Hong Kong - the mist had finally cleared and we were finally able to enjoy the unbroken views of the amazing skyline:

Sleeping:
Gaya Island Resort - absolute relaxing bliss. They organised snorkelling and scuba diving trips for me and both were great. Evenings are a little quiet as you are stuck on the island so definitely a place for relaxation!

Shangri La Rasa Ria - set on the most amazing stretch of beach and within close proximity to the rivers and mangrove forests - we chose it for the orangutan rehabilitation program which is now closed. 

London

Grey, wet, cold, busy, smoky, unfriendly, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful London! I've never loved this city as much as i do right now. Restaurants from every corner of the earth with all their menus written in English. Public transport that more or less functions despite being packed in like a sardine. Cab drivers who know exactly where you are going, even when you don't. Beautifully spaced out queues of people. Cool, fresh weather - not a drop of sweat in sight. They have a thing called pavements here, which are these areas on the side of roads where no cars, motorbikes, trucks,  horses, donkeys or cows can travel along making it safe for the humble pedestrian to go about their business - it's bloody genius!
And don't even get me started on the delights packed into my beautiful, beautiful flat. Double beds with the softest mattresses, clean linen, rooms with as many power sockets as you could ever possibly want... Wardrobes. Oh, a whole wardrobe full of wonderful, wonderful things. Heels, belts, bags, jeans, dresses. A dressing table with make up, perfume, moisturisers, hairbrushes, hair dryers. Oh my god, it's like my own personal beauty salon... A bathtub. a real life, clean, white, bathtub stocked with shower gels, soaps, shampoos and conditioner - I don't think I've ever been this clean in my life. I smell like fresh flowers and my skin feels like a dolphin's. I put on real clothes, high heels, make up and I even brushed my hair and when I looked in the mirror I felt like one of those women off a Trinny and Susannah makeover show. It almost brought me to tears. I've been reunited with my music collection. I will never listen to Whitney or the Bee Gees again. Best of all though are the toilets! Gleaming porcelain beauties with seats, flushes, tissue paper, soap, running water. Now I understand why they call it a throne, I could sit on that fresh smelling thing all day... I mean just look at this before and after shot:

Yes, that's right. Squat toilets with no doors. I mean seriously Beijing, are we animals?!

There's also this thing called a kitchen in here and it has everything you possibly need to turn raw stuff into food.. Look at how I transformed these eggs and bread into breakfast:

A miracle! And not a noodle or a grain of rice in sight. Joy of joys!

In all seriousness though, I'm surprisingly happy to be back. I'll try really hard to not write a million soppy cliches but there's no other real way to describe this than as a sort of rebirth. Everything seems new and exciting and I can appreciate things that I would never have thought twice about before. I am relaxed and happy and the best part about it is that I have 1001 incredible memories that will last me a lifetime. There aren't really any words to describe the past 6 months. I've been dreaming about them since I was a teenager and they have lived up to and far surpassed any expectations that I may have had. People ask me what my favourite places were and I usually give them the easy answer which goes something like: "Bolivia and Laos. China and Malaysia were amazing - all of it really except India which I didn't massively enjoy" but really it isn't that straight forward. It's not so much the places that you visit that makes a trip it's the experiences you have there. My favourite places actually are the tops of mountains, the bottom of oceans, the middle of jungles, the beginnings of friendships... Rooftop bars with glasses of champagne, greasy little backstreet restaurants, beach bars with fire breathers, trains and buses with multiple landscapes flickering through their windows, nightclubs at 4am ... my house packed with great friends, my lovely soft bed (not packed with great friends). I could rabbit on and on but I've already blogged about it all so if you've read it you already know what my highlights are. Even India which may not have given me the greatest experiences taught me something about myself and something about the world, so whilst I am not in a rush to go back there, I am actually happy that I went.

Anyway, I want to thank you all for reading my rambles about my rambles. I'm heading home to Gibraltar on Wednesday so I think I can manage one last post in honour of my beautiful home town but other than that, my everyday life is sadly just not all that exciting so if I don't think of something else to write about, Kate will no longer post. What I will say to those folks who go on about how jealous they are is to stop being jealous. I didn't win the lottery or get some magical travel invite, I just saved up some cash, quit my job and booked a flight. Seriously, it's that easy. Obviously if you have financial commitments or a family please don't go and bankrupt yourself or give your children abandonment issues - make do with a week off here and there. But if you can do it and you want to do it, just go and bloody well do it! Please!

PS. Errr... Anyone out there want to employ me? I'm kinda broke... :D

Sarawak, Borneo

Kuching, aka the cat city, is the capital of Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo; it lives up to its name by erecting the kitschest feline statues ever to be sculpted on every corner and roundabout. I'm not a huge cat fan at the best of times by when they're over 1 metre tall and surrounded by snap happy tourists they're even bloody worse. Ironically enough cats are about the only animals that I didn't see in and around Kuching. Most of our time here was spent getting in touch with nature. We visited the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre where orangutans are cared for before being released into the wild. Feeding time is at 9am and there is nothing quite like the experience of waiting in anticipation for these fuzzy ginger primates to swing through swaying trees and cartwheel along ropes to a natural soundtrack of birds and crickets. Orangutan is derived from the Malay/Indonesian 'Orang Hutan' which means 'people of the forest' - Apparently they are amongst the most intelligent apes and it's not difficult to see their human-like attributes as they walk around upright to munch on their bananas.

The rest of the week was spent at Bako National Park where we got to trek along some beautiful trails and see plenty more wildlife. The real stars of the show here are the less than attractive proboscis monkeys with their elongated rubbery noses but apart from this we were lucky enough to see eagles, flying lemurs, and bearded pigs as well as plenty of creepy crawlies including fireflies, poisonous tarantulas and the even more poisonous green viper:

The trek to Pandan Kecil and Besar Beaches is a gorgeous wander through the tangled Bornean rainforest that culminates in a breathtaking cliffside view. Despite the heat, the one and a half hour trundle through twisted roots, hanging vines and rustling trees is really enjoyable and gives you the feeling that you're lost in a tropical fairy tale forest. The beach itself doesn't disappoint either with scuttling crabs decorating the shoreline and beautiful sunlit caves piercing the wave sculpted cliffsides.

Our time in Malaysia ended on a loud and high note at the Rainforest World Music Festival which can't really be summed up too easily! Think of booty shaking Africans, spear wielding Australians, bagpipe playing Iranians, accordion squeezing Colombians, ribbon twirling Koreans, Norwegians dressed like Hobbits, shrieking tattooed Borneans, violin fiddling Irishmen; all against the backdrop of traditional native houses and towering backlit trees and you'll get a general sense of the awesome 3 days we spent enjoying culture, music and dancing! And all of it kicked off by this old chap with a flute up his nose. (I really can't imagine why this is a dying art. I may take it up myself...)

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur proved itself to be a fun, charismatic and modern city with the stars of the show clearly being the striking Petronas Twin Towers which look impressive from all angles as they pierce the city's skyline. As with Singapore, we were won over by the food with hawkers on every corner serving up tasty dishes of all descriptions. Culinary highlights included the satay, my first taste of durian (yes, I did quite like it believe it or not), beautiful roasted chestnuts, the juiciest clams ever and a typical Malaysian breakfast of nasi lemak (coconut rice with anchovies, egg and spicy sambal).

We were lucky enough to be shown around by a friend we met in Perhentian who took us to a beautiful waterfall on the Chiling river just outside of KL. After surviving a trek through the jungle and several clumsy river crossings we relaxed to the sounds of water crashing down the cliffside - I'm told that it's a popular Malaysian pastime to spend weekends trekking past rivers and swimming at waterfalls and having had an awesome day out I can easily see why.

With hundreds of air conditioned malls to choose from, we naturally indulged in more shopping and even stopped by an Indian palm reader who kindly  informed me that I'm going to meet my husband at 27, which gives me all of 2 weeks to find the poor unsuspecting sod... For some reason I'm a little dubious of the accuracy of this reading so relax all you eligible bachelors; I think you are safe for now! Cata and I are too busy protecting the Universe...

The Petronas Twin Towers:

New friends and awesome food:

Chiling river:

A roller coaster in a shopping mall? Well why the hell not...

Perhentian Islands

Remember those little islands you used to draw as a child with the sea, the sand and the palm trees? Well, they actually exist; about 19 kms off the northeastern coast of Malaysia. Perhentian means stopping place in Malay, and it is no surprise that many a foreigner get stuck here for several years - Every paradise island cliché you could ever wish for can be found here: Golden sunshine, blue skies, white sands, turquoise waters, green palms, fresh coconuts and beautiful scantily clad people. As if the surface wasn't awesome enough, I decided to sign up for the PADI open water dive course

 which revealed a whole other World beneath the waves which was equally, if not even more, breathtaking. Creatures of all colours, shapes and sizes lurk between alien rocks, anemones and corals... Among my scuba highlights were 2 beautiful green sea turtles, a slithery moray eel, and an adorable junior yellow box fish. Finding Nemo is actually unbelievably easy, the cute little orange buggers are absolutely everywhere... I'll try and not bore you to death with a description of every tropical fish I happen to remember though - the point here is it's amazing down there so go and check it out! If scuba isn't your thing then snorkelling is still pretty awe inspiring but there's nothing quite like the magical feeling of weightlessness you get when you are under the water. I recon it is the closest I'll ever come to being an astronaut!

As well as all the natural beauty of the place the island is really sociable as everyone mostly hangs out on the same beach (long beach) meaning we were able to meet plenty of people from all over the World.

Perfect though it seemed we did discover a very ugly under belly after a couple of days... Stories of tourists and locals getting beaten up with sticks for trivial reasons - last year alone two people were beaten to death and the only punishment for this crime is the cost of a police bribe. On a less serious note my iPod and cash were stolen while I went swimming and on a very tragic note an English tourist was killed when a boat hit her whilst snorkelling. When you are presented with that kind of perspective it seems silly to mourn the loss of a gadget and some cash. Sadly you come across tragic situations like this that remind you never to let your guard down fully as there can be danger in the most serene of places.

We did have an amazing time though and I was really very reluctant to leave... Having met plenty of people on that beach who 'stopped' for a few days and still hadn't carried on after a few years, I thought it best to escape paradise before it sucked me too far in!

Key info:

Accommodation: Bintang view - amazing wooden huts with beautiful views of the sea. Electricity from 7am to 7pm which makes sleeping in after a night out somewhat difficult! But that's what the beach is for anyway isn't it?

Dive school: Turtle Bay Divers - friendly staff and good instructors with a maximum of 4 divers per instructor which is just right.

Fresh coconut straight from the tree:

Long beach:

Bintang View:

Fire throwers and monkey juice at the beach bar:

Full moon rising;

Me being a sea astronaut:

Nothing much else to do but: